Voters reject data centers in local ballot initiatives
Jason marz via Getty Images
By
Chris Teale
Of the more than 40 votes held in localities across the U.S., data centers were successful in just one, showing residents’ broad opposition to building them in their communities.
It was a bad election night for data centers as opponents of their development were successful in virtually all 40 ballot measures across 10 states, according to preliminary results.
Voters in localities of various sizes in the Midwest, South, East and West largely voted to reject data centers being built in their jurisdictions, although some of those votes are advisory and therefore not binding on local elected officials.
Ohio communities saw the most ballot initiatives on data centers, mirroring a state level effort to vote on a constitutional amendment banning new data center construction, which could be on the ballot next year. Almost 20 towns, cities and counties in the state held votes on data centers, with some asking voters if they should ban the construction of the centers writ large, while others were asked about amending their zoning laws to allow them. In every race, data center opponents appear to have been victorious.
Data centers also suffered defeats in localities in California, Illinois, Kansas, Maine and New Jersey. More votes are expected next month in Arkansas and North Dakota.
“Voters across the country have emphatically rejected the push for AI data centers. In state after state and race after race, Big Tech has failed to deliver — and everyday Americans have won,” said Mitch Jones, deputy director of Food & Water Action, a nonprofit that pushes for clean water and food. “Not only in Washington, but in state capitols and village halls across the country, newly elected leaders are poised to stand up to the unregulated, reckless buildout of hyperscale data centers wherever they are proposed.”
So far, the only city where data centers have prevailed in the vote last night appears to be Harwood, North Dakota, where the secretary of state’s office said 75% of the 430 people that voted rejected an amendment to the city charter that would have required an independent review and public hearing before adopting large industrial projects, including data centers. That would have applied to future projects, not the controversial Applied Digital campus that has already been approved.
Few issues have caught as much attention and bipartisan opposition as data centers, which had already been defeated in several local ballot initiatives before last night.
Voters in Port Washington, Wisconsin voted in April for an initiative asking if voters should have to approve tax increment financing districts over $10 million, which are also used for data centers, while residents of Monterey Park, California voted overwhelmingly to permanently ban the facilities from being built in city limits in what appeared to be the first vote of its kind in the United States.
Among residents’ many concerns are data centers’ effect on their water and power bills, in addition to a lack of transparency on how deals are signed between local governments and the tech companies and developers seeking to build there. And while some jurisdictions are looking to get ahead of the issues that plague data centers’ relationships with localities, many have not.
Those political headwinds continued to blow through areas as diverse as Kansas, Maine and California. In Emporia, Kansas, for example, voters were asked whether or not to prohibit the installation and operation of what were referred to as “high impact data centers,” defined as a “facility whose primary purpose is the housing, operation, and maintenance of computer servers and related infrastructure that requires a peak electrical load exceeding 10 megawatts or a daily water draw exceeding 100,000 gallons.”
Voters there passed that measure with just over 60%, with the “high impact” definition likely to also apply to server farms, AI training facilities, cryptocurrency mining and other facilities.
Just one California jurisdiction — Alhambra, in Los Angeles County, eight miles from downtown Los Angeles — had a question about data centers on the ballot this time around. Preliminary results with many more votes still to be counted show voters are on track to ban data centers throughout the city.
These votes, coupled with broader trends in how Americans voted in other midterm races — including for Congress — suggest a backlash against big tech companies, data centers and AI is well underway. According to exit polls published by NBC, 56% of voters described AI and data centers as a crucial or major factor in their vote, and of those, 64% voted for Democrats.
Even states that did not vote on data centers are tying them back to rising energy prices and the cost of living. In a statement, Charlie Lyons, spokesperson for Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Clean Power PA, said a major priority in that state should be holding those centers accountable, “so families and small businesses aren’t stuck with their costs and new demand is met with cleaner, cheaper energy.”
At an event hosted last month by the Brookings Institution on data centers’ role in the midterm elections, Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings, highlighted states’ “tremendous role” in determining what happens next but noted major discomfort among voters at how data center projects have been allowed to proceed.
“I think it is fair to say Americans have been feeling frustrated this summer and fall at the peremptory way the new technology has been imposed without guardrails, as fast as possible and often through questionable data center deals shrouded in [nondisclosure agreements],” Muro said at the time.